>Just finished watching the film of you printing. Wow! Big and very
>impressive. Tell me about the paper out and over? Looks like magic.
>Bea Gold

Dear Bea,

The MAGIC 'paper out and over?' - I think you're asking about my paper
delivery, right? It's all studio-made (like home-made, only in my studio
:-)) a shallow 4x8 foot drawer - the front and back are 1 inch aluminum
square tube and the sides are aluminum angle - bottom and top are 4mm white
coroplast (corrugated plastic - like corrugated cardboard, except made from
plastic - water proof, stiff, relatively inexpensive) the top is hinged at
the rear and is held in a slightly open position with a pair of 'legs' like
you'd use to hold open a silk-screen frame - these legs are automatically
retracted when the drawer is closing and clear of the press bed. The
drawer is mounted between a pair of 7 foot long stiff rails which glide very
freely back and forth on wheels - when fully retracted, there's a nice aisle
with plenty of room for me to move around the press during dampening and
brushing up ink, and when it's fully open it is supported quite stiffly
about an inch above the surface of the block (designed to support up to 60
pounds of paper, but the ten sheets I'm currently printing weigh less than
10 pounds, so lot's of extra capacity, and if I lean on the thing it doesn't
deflect down onto the block at all. It's opened and closed with a Genie
Garage Door opener - one of the nifty screw-drive variety - that was a real
"Ah-HA" inspiration - I'd worried a long time about how to actuate the thing
and had all kinds of unacceptable crazy ideas before the garage-drawer
inspiration stuck! So for $160 the thing came with more controls than I
needed - the button I press with my foot to close the drawer and lay the
paper onto the block ever so neatly and precisely, two remote transmitters
which also open and close the thing, adjustable limit switches to control
where it stops at each end, adjustable torque before retract, electric eye
safety so it can't open while I'm in the way, and more!

But the basic idea is to hold the paper safely up off the matrix while I
register it, then let the paper be laid smoothly down onto the block as the
humi-drawer retracts. It's a moving damp-stack, and it's water-tight enough
when closed to keep the paper nicely damp for days (with heavy blotter paper
dampened in the bottom of the drawer under the printing papers.

Totaly fantastic. I love watching it. Reminds me of the Rube Goldberg
drawings when I was a kid. You have to realize I still think it's terrific
that the kitchen drawers move in and out so easily! Thanks, Bea

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